As regional Australians we've had to cop a lot over the years. We’ve been hit with droughts, floods and fires.
We’ve seen the boom-and-bust cycles of regional economies and the hope and heartbreak that comes along with it.
Yes, we’ve faced hard times, but we have faced good times too.
Through the good times and the bad times regional and rural communities rely on each other but we also rely on local journalism and our community papers.
Backing local news is more important now than ever. Because we all know it is harder today than ever before for good local journalism to stay afloat.
But something is happening right now across regional communities which is new and incredibly concerning.
In the lead up to the Federal Election a group of wealthy Australians has set up a new company called Gazette News which risks changing regional media forever.
Climate 200 backers are funding this misleading news outlet to publish supportive puff pieces about independent candidates dressed up as real journalism.
Gazette News is run not by a journalist but a political campaigner. It doesn’t print papers and instead is targeting your device with slick social media posts.
Just months out from the Federal Election, Gazette News has set up five separate publications taking on the names of the regional communities it seeks to influence.
The Eastern Melbournian, The North Shore Lorikeet, The Mid North Coaster, The Gippsland Monitor and The West Vic Brolga.
The West Vic Brolga is targeting voters in the community I represent of Wannon and Western Victoria.
This is an affront to the hard-working journalists in regional Australia as well as the voters of Wannon who expect their media to be unbiased.
It’s funded by the same group of people funding the Climate 200 independents covered in their news articles.
These are political ads masquerading as media articles.
What is worse, now these publications are set up, they have started to pump big money into promoting and platforming exclusively pro-independent stories.
Gazette News has a declared political ad-spend of up to $20,500 between 7 - 13 March 2025 across Google and Meta advertising.
These ads promote candidates backed by Climate 200 with money from the same donors who fund Climate 200’s political campaigns.
As much as $6,000 has been spent in ‘The West Vic Brolga’ promoting the Climate 200 independent candidate in my electorate of Wannon.
If you see any article published by the West Vic Brolga or Gazette News you should be aware of the agenda it is pushing.
Gazette News imports the worst trends of American political campaigning into our communities.
It is deceptive, it is wrong, and it threatens legitimate regional journalism and our local publications.
We need to stop this attempt to con our communities.
Anyone can promote a candidate standing for election if it is done with law as set out by the electoral act and AEC guidelines.
This is a test for all Climate 200 backed independents who stand on a platform of integrity in politics.
If these ‘independents’ are truly committed to transparency they would condemn this attempt to manufacture fake stories in fake publications.
They would insist the blatant political advertising is authorised in the appropriate manner.
At the end of the day, Gazette News is an attack on Australian journalism.
We have caught them out and called it out.
The founder of Gazette News says it established a new voice in areas where local news “has declined or disappeared”.
This is a slap in the face to The Standard in Warrnambool—a daily online and print publication—the weekly Ararat Advocate, Pyrenees Advocate, Colac Herald, Hamilton Spectator, The Portland Observer, Casterton News, Surf Coast Times, The Warrnambool Weekly, The Cobden Timboon Coast Times, The Terang Express, The Camperdown Chronicle, The Mortlake Dispatch, Western District Farmer, the Weekly Advertiser, the Weekly Times, ABC South West Victoria news and radio, ACE Radio’s 3YB and 3WM, Coast FM, Mixx FM, K Rock, Fitz Media’s South West Local New—a regional video news service—and other local news sources.
The south-west is not a news desert. It’s far from it.
Our communities deserve better than this.
ENDS
